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All 13.0 - In the Depths of Rapture
As Caitlyn, Ryuji, Victor and Lucca gathered together in the dead of night at Victor's house, Caitlyn thought back over what she had learned about the operation, telling the gathered men what they were up against. The army hadn't offered any support: they did not have the resources at hand to capture a powerful and deranged caster, and since Caitlyn was offering to apprehend him as an agent of CSIS, whom they would probably draft anyways, they were more than willing to let her complete the mission. However, a few days before she planned to go, a man, dressed smartly and wearing black glasses, came to her home. He introduced himself only as a representative of the President's Office, and proceded to make the government's position on the matter clear: Dr. Cohen was to be captured alive at all costs. His incarceration, and further, his escape, were a somewhat secretive matter; though his crimes called for execution, not to mention the cries for his blood from the families of the people who went missing due to his actions, he was being kept alive in order to continue working, as he was still a brilliant scientist who was developing numerous beneficial medical treatments for the government under their lock and key. His worth, and the secret of his existence, was great. Should Caitlyn and her team capture him, the government would be very greatful. Kill him, or make public his continued existence, and the government would be certain to pay back the loss in kind. Arguing with the man was generally futile; Caitlyn had to make due with vague verbal promises of reward before the man left. She vowed that the government would pay her one way or another, and set up a system that, should she not make it, the secret would be let out anyways. The Council of Arcana had also laid bare their intentions, though much less intentionally. The Grand Evoker had been the one to tell Caitlyn of their contribution: a wand that, when used, would direct trained field agents to her location, whereupon they would render assistance. They wanted the element of surprise, so they would wait for the signal before teleporting in. However, the Grand Evoker mentioned that they would arrive and kill him; Caitlyn tried to correct him, saying that he needed to be captured and not killed, and the Evoker dithered in his senile sort of way, letting it slip that the Council had voted to kill him. Alchemists, particularly good alchemists, were an insult to proper magic and lessened the Asonian government's need for wizards; Cohen deserved death for his crimes and the Council was prepared to give it to him. For simplicity's sake however, they didn't want it known that they had planned the murder, and were going to let CSIS take the blame for Cohen's death. With that in mind, Caitlyn was forced to re-evaluate the usefulness of the Council in this matter. Knowing all of this, the four still agreed to travel to the Underdark to try and capture the criminal known as Dr. Malcolm Cohen. The mysterious ninja Shinobi hadn't been seen since the night they fought Cherise, so they carried on without him. Using the LT, they teleported to the underground garden tended by Mark-1.2, where they waited under the cloak of invisibility. Caitlyn snuck past the GuardMechs to the robotic gardener to ask him a few questions. She learned that Cohen would arrive in an hour to receive the shipment that Mark-1.2 was in the middle of packing, and returned to wait with the others. Their plan was to wait by the LT, then sneak aboard when he used it to return to wherever it was he was hiding. When the time finished passing and the LT finally activated, that which had come for the shipping container was not what they expected. A large, semi-metallic being, with little more than its shape suggestive of humanity, stepped forward. Its head was large and round, with a polished, glowing yellow surface instead of a face; it wordlessly stepped forward with heavy, clunking steps and lifted up the large container without any trouble before turning and heading back to the teleporter. Quickly and quietly they stole up behind the creature and followed it to wherever it was headed. The LT took them to a dark room made of shaped stone, neither natural nor carved, the only light coming from the dull glow of the metallic creature's faceplate. They watched as the thing continued forward and dumped the floral contents of the crate into a chute in the wall before putting it down and standing motionlessly in a corner. The group saw only one other exit to the room: a hallway that led somewhere into the darkness. Caitlyn, after refreshing her invisibility, returned to the portal to make note of its address while the others hid in the hall. When that was complete, they agreed that there was nothing for it but to continue down the hallway. They moved forward carefully in the complete darkness, but not quite carefully enough: Lucca felt something like a tripwire catch his leg, and suddenly they were all engulfed in explosive noise and light. They saw the room they had just left collapse a bit as rubble shot forward, and then there was a ringing silence. The four barely had time to pick themselves up before they heard a loud stomping behind them. Running forward to the end of the hall, they lept out of the way as the behemoth exited the tunnel and made his way to destinations unknown. They now found themselves standing in a large, open room, lit faintly by some sort of luminescent material scattered about the walls and floor. Again, it was made of shaped stone, and seemed to be some sort of amphitheater or meeting hall, with partially-ruined stone benches and a platform. It was eerie and empty, and they could count seven different hallways that branched away from the room, several on a second story that could be reached by stone steps. The watched the receding back of the metal man and decided to follow it, since it was obviously going somewhere and hopefully it would lead them where they wanted to go. Suddenly, a man's voice, accompanied by a harsh harmony of static, echoed over the room, it's source seeming to come from every corner. It complained rhetorically about how he had told them that a teleporter was a stupid idea, but that no one had listened; that he assumed that whoever was there mustn't be part of the Riptides, or they wouldn't have set off the explosion; to be careful of the denizens, as they bit. With a sarcastic finality, he welcomed them to Rapture, or whatever it was people had been calling this place. Unsettled, they followed after the shambling creature. All other sounds were drowned out by the echoes of the heavy footsteps. Victor squinted, and whispered if anybody else had heard something, but before they could reply, something fell heavily onto Lucca, screeching horridly and tearing at him with wild abandon. Yelling himself, Lucca knocked it back to see that it was a woman, or something close to it. She was distorted: her eyes mad, her body dressed in rags and twisted with tumourous growths, and her fingers replaced by sharp spikes of solid bone that she was using to tear at the druid. With fear and disgust, the group killed her swiftly, Victor taking off her head, leaving the parts to fall to the ground in an ichorous pool. Assuming her to be one of the missing victims of Cohen's they wrapped up her head and placed it in Victor's bag of holding so that it could be later identified. Hurrying down the hall, they ran to catch up with the heavy-footed creature, who hadn't been at all fazed by the commotion. They paused at the tunnel's end: it opened into a small, nicely designed annex, where three other tunnels led forward. They could hear whispering coming from within, and sneaking up closer revealed that there were two more horribly mutated people standing within, with a third able to be heard further back. They were all ranting, chanting the paranoid nonsense of the utterly insane, talking about being watched and about a prophet. The large metal man could be heard stomping away down one of the tunnels, but one of the wretches happened to look towards the tunnel, spying the now-visible group. He gave an ungodly screech, and the three twisted people lunged forward, their mutilated arms outstretched. The third man entered from the far tunnel, his face bearing strange lines and his eyes glassy and dead; as they watched, his skin and bone peeled back, opening up into a worm-like mouth that hissed and spat. Without hesitation or restraint, the four fell to combat, levelling their swords and spells against them as their opponents tried with rabid savagery to tear them apart. The creature with the worm-like head lept up onto the ceiling to avoid Caitlyn's magical grease and focused on Lucca, who was throwing lighting with abandon in an attempt to stop the mutants from advancing. Victor and Ryuji stood forward, repelling them with their blades while Caitlyn gave them her magical support from the rear. Suddenly, a sharp, painful jab punctured Caitlyn from behind. She turned quickly to see what was there, and screamed out when she saw what it was: another robot, its shape not unlike that of the GuardMechs, but instead of weapons on its arms it possessed a shield-like tray and an array of tools, one of which was a large-bore syringe that Caitlyn just managed to see swivel out of sight, filled with her blood, to be replaced with a fresh one. More horrifyingly though, its body was not made of metal but old human bones, with its wires and cogs twisted in and around the frame. A ribcage held in its central components, formed leg and arm bones made up its spindly insect-like legs, and a skull sat fused to its top, a red, glass lens jammed into the center where the bridge of its nose used to be. Without word or signal, it moved forward towards Lucca, its interest in Caitlyn seemingly passed. As the three men finished off the enraged mutants, the macabre robot stepped forward, managing to pierce Lucca's flesh as well, collecting a sample for unknown ends. All four attacked it as best as they were able, but its solid body of metal and bone proved resilient. The man's voice spoke out again, mentioning that they could kill the mutations all they like, it would save him trouble, but he would appreciate them not destroying his assistant; he was utterly ignored. Despite their efforts, Ryuji and Victor could not prevent the robot from carrying out its task, and when it had collected its final sample, stored away inside its arm, it crawled up with its spindly legs onto the wall, climbing to the ceiling and making and escape down one of the tunnels past the annex. Caitlyn and Lucca made to run after it, but Ryuji stopped them, saying with stress-fueled anger that if they kept running around blindly and loudly, they would keep aggravating the monsters and wouldn't survive long. He finally got them to agree to try and be quiet before they followed after the bone robot. This tunnel led to another large, open room lit with fluorescent green. Tables lined much of it, with a few small stone buildings lined up along one side. A cursory exploration determined this to be some sort of mess hall: the buildings were long-abandoned kitchens and storehouses that had apparently been designed for both magical and mundane cooking. Caitlyn scavenged the few magical food preparation devices that had been left behind, and the group made to move on again. As they went to select one of the tunnels to try, the voice spoke out: he was disappointed that he finally had worthwhile subjects, but only one of them was human. After a moment, he conceded that the half-elf wasn't bad, it was just more of a frustration to work with, but the zombie was utterly useless and he didn't even know what the fourth one was. Trying to ignore the voice that came from the walls, they chose one of the upper tunnels and left. Lining the hall was a series of doors, all which led to small dormitory rooms, none of which appeared to have been touched in a long while. As they reached the end of the hall, there was a clicking sound: gas poured out from above, quickly enveloping them. Lucca, Caitlyn and Victor all quickly blacked out, leaving Ryuji to defend against three GuardMechs that appeared to carry the victims away. He fought as best he could, but was swiftly overpowered; as he reached the end of his limits, he knew he had to escape or he would be destroyed, which he couldn't let happen if he was to help anyone. With a vague wish that he was smaller and faster, he found himself turn into a raven. Without time to consider any of this, he flew away as quickly as he could. The mechs ignored the fleeing animal and returned to their original task. Collecting the three sedated adventurers, they each walked off to a different location. Lucca awoke some time later. As he slowly regained consciousness, he realized that he was hanging upside down, bound tightly in chains. The air was freezing, and he was naked. When his vision stopped spinning, he saw, hanging inches from his face, another one of the mutated people, hanging dead and frozen. He was in a meat locker of some sort, either to be stored or left for dead; Lucca wasn't about to find out which. Shifting to a smaller form, he slipped out of his bonds and fell to the floor. Freezing, scared and upset, he ripped off a piece of a shelf and began to hammer at the door. How long it to finally dislodge it from its latch he didn't know, but it felt like an eternity. Finally springing out into the comparatively warm air, he gave a short yell of triumph before running back into Rapture's twisting hallways, vowing to find pants, his companions and his gear, while taking care to avoid the insane denizens of the caves. Victor's eyes struggled to open. Fighting for consciousness, he could feel himself pinned to a flat surface by ties of some sort; something was hanging from his wrist, its end buried into his skin. Calming himself and focusing entirely on his hand, he managed to free his wrist from the leather strap that had pinned it down. Grabbing at his other arm, he pulled out the object: a thin tube with a needle on its end. Composing himself, he waited to regain full consciousness before he finished freeing himself. Sitting up, he took stock of his situation. He had been tied to a metal stretcher, naked and covered by a thin sheet. As he looked about the room, it was hard to tell what it had originally been meant for; there was no furniture, and nothing else in the room save for two other stretchers and some crates. His strength slowly coming back, he stood up and glanced into the boxes: medical equipment, he guessed, though it looked like it had been heaped rather messily into the crates and left. Nothing looked particularly useful, and it certainly wasn't his belongings. Arming himself poorly with a somewhat-sharp looking implement, he made his way to the door. Sneaking it open and finding the hallway empty, he stole out. Listening carefully, he could make out the sound of a rhythmic thumping, slowly getting louder. The huge metal monstrousity, or something akin to it, was walking towards him. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, he ran off in the other direction. Caitlyn awoke, lying on a table. She was pinned with straps, and naked save for a thin sheet that was draped over her. As she looked about, she could see that something was attached to her wrist: a tube that connected her to a bag of clear fluid. Fear welled up within her, and she began to struggle against the bindings. A voice came from behind her, telling her to calm down before she hurt herself. When she didn't stop, he threatened to sedate her again. A figure walked into her field of vision: an older man, with greying hair and few distinguishing features. Cohen. She began to ask him frantic questions: what he had done to her, what was going on, what was he doing. He answered some of her inquiries, replying that he hadn't done anything, the line in her wrist was just saline and wasn't doing anything of note, and for starters he had to collect baseline data before he could do anything. With that, he held out a thermometer and asked her to comply, lest he have to take her temperature somewhere more personal. Reluctantly she complied, though had to be told to keep it under her tongue and to stop trying to talk with it in her mouth. When he took it back, he asked her what her age was, since it was important for calculating hormone levels and such; she only replied with more questions. It was quickly concluded that neither was willing to give the other the information they wanted, so Cohen stepped away for moment, returning to her field of view with several measuring instruments. He began to take a thorough account of her body lengths and widths, despite her protestations and further questions. She demanded repeatedly to know what he was doing, which he finally replied that he didn't know, since one couldn't build anything until they knew what they knew what they were working with. She argued with him a bit, asking about the monsters they had fought earlier; he replied that they were mistakes. An experiment that has been left unattended for years grows mould, he explained, and he had no idea whether the people had degenerated so much due to unforeseen effects of his treatments or due to their own meddling with alchemy and magic they didn't fully understand; he had tried to work out the cause, but it had proven difficult to determine. In either case, it certainly wasn't his intention to create them. He explained all this while he continued to take measurements and ask for her age, which she refused to divulge; in response, he refused to answer any more of her questions. Eventually she switched tack, demanding food, a snack, or something of the sort. He ignored her at first, telling her that she wouldn't starve, but when he finished at her feet, he rolled his eyes and said that he had to go input data anyways. He walked away, and Caitlyn could hear a door open and close behind her. Immediately, she began to struggle her way out of the bindings, freeing herself before Cohen could return. The room looked like some sort of operating room and chemistry lab combined, with a single door that led out. Wrapping herself in the sheet like a toga and pressing her ear up against the door, she listened for signs of movement. She heard the slightest bit of motion, signalling Cohen's presence. Grabbing a scalpel and clutching it tightly, she stood near the door and waited, waited and waited for him to return. It seemed like forever before the door creaked open slightly; immediately, she unleashed a spell at him, confusing his mind. Caitlyn followed it immediately with a second spell, attempting to paralyze him; his hand moved to his waist, brushing aside his coat and signalling the failure of the second spell. He pulled a small device out, levelled it at Caitlyn and pulled its trigger. With a loud bang and an explosion, Caitlyn felt something pierce her shoulder, and was seared with chemical fire and assailed by a noxious effect that tried to cloud her mind. Shaking it off, she ran for the door, shoving past the confused Cohen and into the adjacent room: an office that had also been made into living quarters. Pulling open the door, she was met with the back of the huge metal man. Having seconds before the addled Cohen reached her, she cast an illusion that made it appear as though dozens of copies of her were running out of the room and down the hall in different directions. The behemoth began to stomp about, confused by the illusion; Cohen was not distracted by the concept, but the images served to foil his aim at the very least. Suddenly, the large humanoid paused; with new clarity, it turned and wandered off down the hall, heading to an unknown location. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Caitlyn immediately fled in the other direction, leaving Cohen to yell incoherently behind her. Lucca, naked and frustrated, crept from hall to hall, avoiding the mutants and looking for any sign of something useful. He eventually came upon a door that was different from the others: it was metal, very large, and apparently opened by sliding upwards. There was a panel on the side of the wall beside it that reminded him of a doorbell, and the door appeared to be open somewhat. Sliding under the crack, he found himself in a workshop of sorts, filled with metal bits and parts. Looking for a weapon, all he could find were tools that looked like they were fitted for children. Sneaking about, he eventually came upon a strange sight: the horrible bone robot from earlier was standing near a table. On it was a partially-completed robot, lacking any limbs or external covering, and standing on the bone robot, singing a little song and meddling with its wiring, was an orange female kobold wearing cargo pants. Suddenly, the half-formed robot announced that there was an intruder; with a yelp of shock, the kobold dove for cover and told the bone robot to defend. As the terrible construct activated, Lucca ran out into the hall. Hiding around the corner for a few moments, he heard no pursuit, so he returned to find the rolling door shut tight. Deciding that it may well be worth the effort, he knocked on the door. The kobold's voice echoed out of the panel on the wall, asking, with a bit of a stammer, who he was and what he was there for. He introduced himself as someone who had been captured, who was going to escape, and who would like to borrow some pants. The kobold warily agreed to let him in; the door opened to reveal the bone robot standing guard, with the small reptile sitting on its back. When Lucca came in and continued to seem trustworthy, the kobold began to warm up to him. She introduced herself as Carrot, or Annashil, or Creator; they were all her names, she explained, so he could use any of them. She brought him an extra pair of pants, though they were fit for someone of her size, so she wasn't sure what he was going to do with them. He immediately shifted into a much smaller version of himself that could fit, intriguing the Creator. The pair chatted for a bit, with Lucca asking her many questions: who she was, how she got here and whether she was in fact the one making all of the constructs. She claimed that she was indeed their maker; she had been left alone when her master had died, and had been living quietly until the Riptide Gang found her and put her to work, first blackmailing her, then kidnapping her and keeping her here. Afraid to leave and afraid of angering the Riptides, she had been trapped doing their bidding for some time. Lucca promised to get her out safely, and asked for her help locating his friends and belongings. Carrot agreed, and took him to an array of many shiny grey squares that had been inset into the wall. As Lucca looked, he realized that they were grainy photos of the building; Anna explained that she could see what was happening with them. To Lucca's astonishment, he saw that, indeed, things moved in these pictures. They watched for some time, but didn't see anyone, though they did notice a raven, of all things, fly by one of the scenes quickly. Lucca asked if she knew anything more; Carrot wasn't sure where anyone might be held, but she did know where the Riptides kept things, so that was probably a good place to start. She mentioned that it wasn't safe to wander around with the monsters, but her robots scared them away; Lucca asked her to call an escort, specifically the huge construct from earlier. Desite seeing it as a bit unnecessary, she ran over to a particular button and called for the MoveBot to return to the garage. They waited until eventually hearing its heavy footfalls before going to meet it; climbing onto its shoulders, Carrot and Lucca rode it as it walked down the tunnels where the kobold directed it. Caitlyn ran down the halls, trying to be careful not to alert any of the monstrous creatures that were roaming about. When she thought she had put some distance between her and Cohen, and didn't feel like she was being chased, she began to stop to investigate rooms. Nothing was of particular interest, until she came upon a door that had been locked. Interested and hoping that it might contain her teammates or her clothes, she unlocked the door using the scalpel she had grabbed earlier. As she went to open it, she heard a sound of motion within that suddenly stopped. Leaping back, she readied herself for something to exit, but the door never opened. Eventually, she returned to the door and made to open it carefully, only to find that it had been relocked. Unlocking it a second time, she quickly pushed it open and stood aside. Again, nothing responded. Preparing a spell, she began to creep forward. As she stepped into the entryway, spell on her tongue, a blade flashed out from within, aimed at her neck. Caitlyn and Victor's eyes met, and both stayed their attack. Appearing fully-equipped and unharmed, Victor waved her in, gesturing to where her things were. As she dressed, she explained that he had escaped and eventually came into this room, finding all of their things. He had locked the door behind him for safety as he got dressed; Caitlyn was the first person he had seen. He had looked about the room and found that it was being used as a storehouse: millions of dollars of valuable artifacts and cash money were being held here, safely away from the authorities. Victor made no illusion: he was going to collect all of the goods in his Bag of Holding, since there was no sense in leaving it here in the Riptides' hands, and frankly, he was going to keep a sizeable cut to recompense him for his trouble. Caitlyn had no qualms about this, and the two began loading everything into the extradimensional storage. As they were finishing, they heard a loud, regular thumping noise getting closer. By now, they knew the sound of the huge creature's footsteps. Preparing for combat, they took up defensive positions. As it reached the door, they could hear two voices along with it, one of which was highly familiar. Deciding it was unlikely to be a trap, they glanced out the door to see the large construct being ridden by a kobold and a tiny version of Lucca wearing nothing but a pair of cargo pants. After a brief greeting and a joyful reunion with his clothes, Lucca was brought up to speed regarding his companions' exploits. The remaining questions were: what to do about Cohen, and what had happened to Ryuji. Lucca introduced the Creator of Constructs and explained that she was helping them out and needed help escaping; the other two agreed without question. Unsure of what to do next, Lucca explained Carrot's magical scry-boxes and everyone agreed to return to the Creator's garage to use them. Everyone crowded into the cramped shop and huddled about the strange boxes that showed moving pictures of the facility. They worried about where Ryuji could be, as he was nowhere to be found; he might be dead, or trapped, or disposed of. However, they could see Cohen: he had returned to his living quarters and was sitting quietly, flipping idly through a book and glancing up occasionally. His gaze was uncanny, since it seemed to alternate between the book, something off to his side, and then directly at them, as though he was looking at them through the glassy screen. Carrot explained that he had the viewscreens in his office as well, and could see them as well as they could see him. When asked, she pointed out a button: if they pressed it, their voices could be heard by him as well, but not unless they pushed it. With determination, Lucca pressed down and got Cohen's attention. He looked up, neither surprised nor angry, and replied, wondering why they had sat around for so long. The group demanded to know what he had done with their friend, to which he replied that he had done nothing: the zombie had escaped the GuardMechs by turning into a bird, the news of which surprised everyone else as much as it had the doctor when he saw it. He said that it had been flying around after that, but hadn't managed to actually get anywhere between its lack of direction and need to avoid the mutants and sentinels. Lucca and Caitlyn began to question the doctor's motives: why he was working for the Riptides, why he was still in the Underdark, what he had been planning on doing and why he had made the things here. Cohen replied reasonably enough: he was in the Underdark because this was where the Riptides had put him; he couldn't really leave, since they would chase him down, not to mention the authorities, and since he didn't know any other LT codes he'd have to walk out of the Underdark on foot, which seemed both tedious and dreadfully risky. The mutants, he claimed, were not his fault: they could have developed as a result of his earlier experimentation going unattended, or it could be that they tried to take it into their own hands and did it to themselves. In either case, it had proved to be highly difficult to work back out what had gone wrong, and that combined with their rabid, violent behaviour and paranoia, made them both dangerous and useless. Despite Caitlyn's demands, he maintained that he had done nothing to her and hadn't made particular plans to do anything: he had been taking preliminary data to determine the best traits to try and amplify. He briefly explained the drive behind his experimentation: he believed strongly in mortals, humans in particular, and their capabilities, but bemoaned their lack of physical capability compared to similar extraplanar beings. How fair was it, that a human could train and struggle their whole lives, and even then be only marginally as strong as a weak, untempered angel? He aimed to cultivate mortals' strongest power, the ability to adapt and grow as a species, to alter humanity and guide it to a stronger future. He explained all of this calmly and reasonably, throwing into doubt how best to apprehend the man. He refused to surrender himself to them: given that option, he said, he'd rather make a break for the Underdark and take his chances. If they could teleport away, he assumed they would have done so already, leaving only one exit into the larger cave system, which he was currently closer to. Lucca pressed him for details regarding the Riptides again, so he further explained that they had been using him to process drugs, a rather banal task; he'd get a shipment of flowers, he'd process them into a more potent liquid form, and three days later, they'd send a few representatives to collect the vials, though he suspected they'd know something was wrong rather quickly, now that the portal had been destroyed. Removing his hand from the button, Lucca talked to the others so that they could plan what they would do next. They agreed that they should find Ryuji first, and asked Carrot if there was some way to speak to the whole facility the way Cohen had been addressing them earlier. The kobold, with some confusion, informed them that they had been doing that all along. After skipping a beat, realizing that Ryuji had been listening to all of this, they went back to the screens until they located a bird. Hitting the button again, they started giving it directions, and it eventually made its way to the garage. Suddenly, there was a knock. The Creator opened the door and saw Ryuji standing there, looking terribly wounded and deathly frostbitten. With tears of sorrow and relief, he hugged Caitlyn, apologizing for not being there. Coming inside, Caitlyn picked through the valuables they had collected earlier, hoping to find a scroll of restoration among the pile of magic papers they had found. Finding one, she took Ryuji back outside for privacy and let him feed, restoring some of his vitality. The two returned with no comments from the others, and so they fell to discussing their next step. Ryuji wanted to mete out the harshest retribution they could; Caitlyn wanted him punished and was quietly upset with the knowledge that the alchemist would not get the punishment he deserved from the government. Lucca was slightly upset since he knew the man needed to be captured, but he personally felt like the man maybe didn't warrant a violent response. They also wondered what should be done about the Riptides: if they could restore the portal, they could catch some of the gang members when they came to collect in a few days. It was Victor who finally outlined the plan they went with: they would coerce Cohen into restoring the portal as it was, as he had implied a working knowledge of the enchantment, after which they would ambush him, knock him out and return him to the authorities. Agreeing that this would be the best plan, since it would allow them to later catch some Riptides, they called back Cohen to see if they could fool him. They outlined a plan, saying that they just really came to capture some criminals, so if he helped them restore the portal to set a trap for the Riptide collection agents, they would pretend to have not seen him. He fell for the ruse, and agreed to meet them in the room where they had originally teleported into. Bringing along the Creator and her MoveBot, now named Stompy by Lucca, the group moved towards the rubble-filled annex. As they walked down the hall, they agreed on their plan: Caitlyn would keep an eye on the progress, and give several code phrases as the enchantment neared completion, signalling the others to sneak to cover and apply enhancement magicks to themselves. When the portal was very nearly complete, she would give a 'get into position' signal, followed by an 'attack' signal, whereupon everyone would attack the alchemist and knock him out. Cohen met them as promised; with no struggle but also no shortage of snide comments regarding Ryuji and unwanted questions regarding Lucca's species, Cohen and Caitlyn worked together to reconstruct the portal enchantment. As they neared completion, she began to give the signals. When the time came, the plan went off without a hitch: Cohen barely had time to register what was happening before Caitlyn, Lucca, Ryuji, Victor and Stompy knocked him unconscious. They tied him up and congratulated each other on their success. Before heading back, they decided what to do with the large pile of stolen and contraband goods they had discovered. Eventually, they agreed that the best solution was to go through it all and sort it into two piles: that which was easily identified and would be noticed as marked or stolen, and that which wasn't. The former pile would be submitted to the authorities as stolen goods that they had discovered, and the latter would be split between them as per the finder's clause in their CSIS contracts. Ryuji found this to be less than honest but between the contracts and his terrible experience, even he agreed that compensation was in order. After dividing out the goods, they prepared to go back to Arlington. Carrot accepted Caitlyn's offer to stay with her, and her myriad of constructs were left behind for the moment, knowing that they would be safe and could be collected later. They teleported to the address that Caitlyn had been given, finding themselves in a processing area of a jail. Delivering the comatose Cohen and the stolen goods, they were thanked and told that people would be in touch with them in regards to payment. When they returned to Arlington, they found it was evening, and all unanimously agreed that a stiff drink was in order. The five of them went to a local bar, and for the first time, the adventurers all had a good time together. Category:Advent of the All